Such home automation systems are used for motorized products or automatic devices for closing or solar protection in the building, or for the control of lamps or other systems. Typically, one or more command transmitters are provided; each device to be controlled—rolling shutter, blind, lighting unit, etc.—is associated with a command receiver; it is also possible for provision to be made for several devices to be controlled by a same command receiver. The command transmitters and command receivers communicate by radio and use the same transmission frequency, or predetermined frequencies. For these devices, and in particular for motorized products or automatic devices for closing or solar protection in buildings, logistic reasons most often necessitate that the pairing is not performed during manufacture, but rather on the worksite, after installation of the products. Various pairing solutions are proposed in the state of the art.
Certain solutions relate the case where command transmitters are capable only of transmitting and where command receivers are capable only of receiving. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,118 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,289 are examples of such solutions. Other solutions use command transmitters and command emitters capable of transmitting and receiving; U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,980, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,159 are cited in particular.
French patent application FR-A-2 827 414, published after the priority date of this application, describes a method of pairing transmitter and receiver. In this application, it is proposed to fit the receiver with a hardware or software device to set it to pairing, or learning, mode. When said device is active, the receiver moves into pairing mode. When it ceases to be active, the receiver reverts to operational mode. The device can be sensitive to a momentary cut in the receiver power supply.
Moreover, a method of re-initialising a rolling shutter operator using an additional wire, which may be connected to the mains, is known. Such a solution is described in FR-A-2 808 834.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,866 describes a communication system in which each device includes a communication identification, which is allocated in the factory or by the user. For a group constitution, a central device sends a message inviting devices to join the group. On receipt of an invitation message, a device responds as appropriate with an acceptance message. The central device stores a list of the devices forming the group, i.e. the devices that have responded with an acceptance message. Said procedure for forming a group allows messages intended for the group to be sent.
EP-A-0 651 119 describes a set of transmitters and receivers, and mentions the pairing problem. Pairing is effected by learning a code for one transmitter from another transmitter. The two transmitters are placed side by side and the button for the channel in question is pressed on each transmitter, starting with the “teaching” transmitter. This gradual method of learning the codes is also applied to the receiver. The document envisages inhibiting the code teaching function on some transmitters. This document does not propose to form groups from among receivers.
WO-A-01 71685 discloses a universal remote controller, suited to controlling various units. Each unit contains a record of the various data necessary to allow the controller to manage it remotely, with a device code in particular; the record is copied into the universal controller. This document proposes that the controller interrogates the various units that it controls successively. It is proposed to group in a network the different units controlled by a remote controller; WO-A-01 71685 does not give details of how to form such a network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,085 describes a communication system in which the different objects are not paired. On the contrary, the objects are identical from the communication point of view and do not have an unique address.
There is always a requirement for a method of defining a group from among a plurality of operators simply and reliably. Such a process must maintain its reliability even in a dense radio environment or heavily loaded network—for example in the presence of previously configured neighbouring products, or neighbouring products undergoing configuration.